Opinari - Latin term for Opinion. Opinari.net is just what it seems: a cornucopia of rants, raves and poignant soliloquy.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Buy American, You Insensitive Clod!
Today was spent with my oldest son, Ethan, doing some shopping and such. After we had a chocolate malt, I stopped at a local grocer to buy butter for my wife. When I was getting out of the truck, I was approached by an elderly gentleman who began the following exchange:
Man: Excuse me, son, I see you are driving one of those foreign trucks. I'd like to ask you to buy American next time you buy a truck.
Me: Yeah? Why is that?
Man: We're losing $19bn per year because of those Japanese car makers...
Me: What about the assembly plants here in Texas?
Man: Those parts are assembled here, but made overseas!
Me: What about the global economy? Jobs that can be done cheaper overseas should probably be done there, right?
Man: I've been studying this for twenty years, and I warned that this would happen, and people like you just won't listen.
Me: But I did listen, by buying a Toyota that will last years longer than a (looking at the man's truck)... a GMC.
Man: Grumble.
Ethan seemed oblivious to the whole conversation, which was fine with me. I didn't want to belabor the point, so while the man fumed, I walked into the store, and bought my American-made butter from my American cashier.
There's not really a point to all this except to say that, well... when I go to the grocer, I'm probably not in the mood for political prosetylization. I just wanted some butter. And a little time with my son. So if you happen to want to sell me on the merits of "buying American", please don't do it in a grocery store parking lot.
My son just decided, as he was watching HGTV's Divine Designs, that he wanted this ceiling fan for his room. This will not be funny to anyone but those of us who know him so well. See, my son has an obsession with fans. He now thinks his existing ceiling fan is not good enough. He needs this one. He is, for your information, only four years old. Needless to say, he isn't getting this fan. But it's funny to hear him talk about it.
The City Waste Department and the Keep Tyler Beautiful Program want you to give your tree to them. You can drop off undecorated trees at the Golden Road Park and Fun Forest Park.
Communications Director Susan Guthrie says recycling your tree is a lot better than just trashing it. She says that "those trees will end up in a landfill and they'll be picked up as a space and time will allow."
Ms. Guthrie says local fisherman will put the trees in lakes to attract more fish. The Christmas Tree Recycling Program ends January sixth.
This year, my mom managed to make the trip here to Texas. Last year, we had gone to Michigan and Tennessee on a two week jaunt. Readers of this blog know that there is one less family member (my Granny, who passed away in August) and one more family member (my 4 1/2 month old son, Dylan). I'm really glad that my mom was able to come. I didn't want her spending Christmas alone.
We procured a 10' Douglas Fir this year, which didn't take to water very well, so it has slowly withered away. It's still mostly on the green side, but the orange smell that accompanied it at first is no more.
The boys and my wife made the tree decorations out of oranges, popcorn, pine cones, cinnamon, and cranberries. Mostly, it turned out well, although the dog and the middle child both wanted to eat the ornaments.
Gifts began arriving weeks ago, mostly from Amazon. Some though still have not found their way here. Needless to say, this has been a very frustrating logistical Christmas. Mom is leaving this weekend, so hopefully her gift arrives before then!
I won't go into the litany of gifts that the kids received (because they are too numerous), but my wife's favorite thing is probably her new anodized pots and pans. She cooks a lot, and she was in great need for some well-made cookware. Apparently, I managed to fill that need adequately.
As for me, I was given some cash, and I filled some of my own software needs. I purchased a nice little suite called Evernote (for 60% off). Evernote allows me to quickly clip documents, websites, etc. and save them into a local database. This comes in handy for blogging. I also paid for my licensed copy of mSafe, which allows me to remotely lock my Treo and wipe the contents of the SD card and the device in case I lose it or in case it is (God forbid!) stolen.
My wife also got me a wet-dry shaver that, so far, seems to be working quite well, although the trimming option isn't much of a trimmer. I've definitely needed a new shaver.
Apparently, I also have some other gifts on the way (like I said, this has been a logistically challenging Christmas season), and that's great. However, having my family together, seeing their faces and their smiles, and having free time to catch up on housework, and to be with my boys, and my wife, and my mom... there's more joy in those things than any gift could bring. I hope your Christmas was as good as mine was.
Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Pakistan today. This, of course, has been all over the news and blogs. And there have been typical responses of shock, anger, and sadness. These are natural responses.
But the question that occurs to me is why are so many people acting like this is such an unexpected occurrence? After all, unabated violence is the tactic that Islamicists best know. And if Bhutto was the supposed "choice" of the American political establishment, what then would be a better show of power and control then to eliminate her, if for no other reason then a symbolic one?
When all is said and done, this is a sad day for the world, and for Pakistan in particular. But nothing about it should be shocking.
Dave Winer gives me a new, and better reason to never buy an Apple product - apparently, if you send your Mac in for a disk repair, they will refuse to give you the old disk. Further, they can at their discretion give you a refurbished hard drive instead of a new one.
$160 for an 80 GB refurb? That's insane. I've often pointed to Apple's hard line on replacing iPod batteries, and to their obsession with being a closed operating system as reasons for staying away from their products. I'm now convinced that I'd just as soon run Linux on a 486 then own a Mac.
Thinking about taxes early? Try comparing your present income situation to that under the Fair Tax. Here's a calculator to compare the Fair Tax vs. the current tax system.
Personally, I'm undecided on the Fair Tax, even though I tend to lean toward it, but I've read Boortz's book, and I like the idea of having a minimalist IRS. On the other hand, I'm not a big Huckabee fan, and he's a prominent supporter of the FairTax, so I guess there's room for me to move either way on the issue.
Read this. Then tell me what kind of country we live in that would allow this sort of thing to happen.
UPDATE: From the editorial:
What (Mr. Ricks) also needs is his congressman to try to intervene on his behalf. U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, should involve himself in pressing the FBI to return the money to his constituent.
Amen. If the spirit moves you, call or write the congressman referenced above. Here's Jordan's contact information. (Email here)
Huckabee. Ethically challenged? It appears so. I've been wary that this is the candidate that the Republican establishment is going to saddle the electorate with.
...Washington officially joined the world-wide lightbulb prohibition movement. The regular incandescent bulb has worked fine since the 1880s, but Congress is dictating that it be phased out starting in 2012 in favor of compact fluorescents.
Now, I'm all for CFLs. I used them in my basement in Connecticut and I have them in my attic in Texas. However, unless they become more aesthetically pleasing, I'm going to have to harvest as many clear incandescent lights as possible and stash them in my attic... er, alongside my lone CFL.
It seems to me that there is an easier way around this for the media. Find a blogger that writes very professionally, who has a reputation for knowing his stuff. Buy a choice set of seats for the blogger and give him a PDA device with blogging software. (I've been blogging from my Treo using Vagablog for years.) That would seem to remove any possibility of the blogger being ejected or having any credentials revoked.
In fact, the next time I'm at an NCAA event, I'm going to do just what I said above. Let 'em kick me out.
The Mitchell Report is out today, and it calls out some pretty big names. Clemens. Pettitte. Bonds. McGwire. Tejada. All names that have been associated with performance-enhancing drugs in the past.
The report is 409 pages, see link here. Certainly, I don't have time to read it, nor do I plan to do so. Much of what is contained in the report apparently comes from two sources: Kirk Radomski and the Albany investigation into an Orlando pharmacy.
I will be interested to see if any players claim defamation and sue the league because of this report. After all, many of these players are Hall of Fame caliber, and could be prevented from entering the Hall after retirement. Some could be affected directly by being denied endorsement deals. I mean, would you want to solicit an endorsement from an accused drug user?
Aside from all that, here's how I believe this should pan out. Any player that knowingly used these drugs after the league banned them should be suspended indefinitely. No player is above the rules. However, a player that used them before any sort of ban was instituted should not be disciplined. It is hard to make the argument that a player broke the rules when the rule didn't exist. Besides, those players will be subject to public scrutiny, and will likely not play again in the public eye anyway. That is punishment enough, in my opinion.
This report should help Major League Baseball begin to move on and leave the steroid era behind. The sport has survived a great many harmful events in its past, and I believe it will survive this one also... with a caveat. MLB must admit the mistakes that were made, eliminate them, and advocate stiff penalties for future violators. If not, the integrity of the sport will always be questioned.
Talk show host Neal Boortz has been championing the Fair Tax for quite some time now. For those that are unfamiliar with the concept, the Fair Tax is conceived as a way to tax consumption (instead of income), eliminating deductions and credits as well as the IRS itself. Heck, the whole taxation cottage industry would be eliminated or largely reduced. Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has adopted the Fair Tax as one of his campaign platforms. Thus, it has crept into the national spotlight recently.
Now, you would expect self-styled progressives to frown upon this new method of taxation, but most of the pounding lately has come from the right. The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto, no fan of exorbitant taxation, is apparently even more leery of the Fair Tax. Both Boortz and Taranto have thrown around various arguments this week on their respective websites regarding the Fair Tax. I've found the discussion interesting.
What I've found frustrating though is that Taranto's tone has been very condescending. What I'd like to read is a categoric refutation of the arguments that Boortz is making. Taranto doesn't seem to understand how taxes are passed onto the consumer through the supply chain. Taranto refuses to even acknowledge how prices are inflated because each hand that touches a product or a commodity has to pay some share of the tax for the transaction.
In effect, we have a value-added tax (just like Europe does), but it's "hidden". It's very much like when people argue that they pay 7% of their income for SOcial Security and Medicare, and their employer pays the other half, when in fact, the employer is paying nothing. They're just taking the required value out of the salary they would be paying out to the employee. If you don't believe me, look at how human resource departments allocate their expenses for human capital. SS and Medicare outlays are included in that overhead. That equates to money that would have been paid out as salary that simply is being reclassified.
Taxation on goods and services works very similarly. Let's assume that you run an assembly plant for computers. Each component is supplied by a vendor. That vendor has to pay taxes. The commodities used to produce that component come from another vendor. That vendor has to pay taxes. The logistics companies who distribute the components and commodities also pay taxes. The software vendors that provide ERP services to track the commodities and components are taxed. Each transaction has an associated tax. These taxes are evident to the vendors who pay them, but are transparent to the purchaser, because the cost is embedded in the product or commodity. The bottom line is that, if a good costs less to make, the cost savings will be passed onto the consumer. If you doubt that, watch how a market economy works. If a supplier decides to keep their margins high by charging the same cost as before the embedded taxes were removed, watch another firm enter the marketplace that will lower their margins while keeping expenditures nearly the same. Watch the firm that lowers the price to the consumer thrive, while the "greedy" company that stubbornly stuck to its old pricing structure goes out of business.
Taranto ridicules Boortz in his posts to "Best of the Web" on the fact that he finds it absurd that prices will be lower when the current taxation scheme is eliminated. Taranto is (I believe) a supply-sider, so it surprises me that he doesn't understand that the elimination of embedded taxes will lower the cost of goods and services. Actually, in his latest post, he at least acknowledges the argument.
In fairness, the fair tax fans' notion is federal taxes on income, payroll, corporate profits and other things make up a substantial portion of the cost of bringing an item to market. The repeal of these "embedded" taxes, the argument goes, would reduce pretax prices, both wholesale and retail.
If Taranto accepts the above premise, then I fail to see his objections to the idea. If the Fair Tax could lower pretax prices, eliminate political constituencies by consolidating taxation into one rate that is applicable to all, increase the rate and ability of taxes to be collected (since every act of consumption would be taxed), and reduce the size and scope of an agency as large as the Internal Revenue Service, what's not to like?
It appears that, at this point, Taranto's only issue is with the idea of a tax "prebate". I'm not going to argue the merits of a prebate here, nor am I going to argue what the Fair Tax rate should be. Those details would certainly need to be well thought out in the event that a Fair Tax was implemented. However, considering the above points, and considering the current way that Washington uses tax policy, I just can't help but to think that there has to be a better way, and I believe the Fair Tax is the best idea I've heard so far. If Taranto has a better way, I'm all eyes.
Much has been said recently about the untimely demise of Washington Redskins' defensive back Sean Taylor. What I never knew until recently was that he was a member of the Seventh Day Adventist church. (Readers of this site probably know that I, too, attend the SDA church.) I found this story and this one to be very insightful into the life of this misunderstood, private man.
Frustrating. I was all excited that the Treo 680 has a ROM upgrade available this morning, offering ATT's push-to-talk along with some much needed enhancements.
But along the way to the upgrade path. I encountered a Big Caveat:
BlackBerry Connect is not compatible with the Treo 680 Update 2.11. Once the update has been installed, it cannot be removed.
AAUGH! So I gain some functionality at the expense of Blackberry Connect? This does not bode well for me, as I was planning to upgrade several users to PTT and BBC on their devices.
I heard at lunch that the 2007 word of the year was w00t. That's fine and good, but w00t has been around a long time, at least since 1997. The fine website woot.com is several years old as well.
The runnerup - Facebook. I am of the opinion that Facebook is much newer and should have been selected, especially given how popular social networking is.
In case you haven't heard, Microsoft is giving away copies of Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit and 64-bit DVD), Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007, Microsoft Money Plus Premium, Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008, and Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008. The caveat - you have to let them monitor your use of the program.
The Treasury claims that the plan will produce winners all round. That is because the costs of foreclosure are high—typically around 25% of the value of the typical subprime mortgage. Lenders may take modest losses from, say, extending the period of lower interest payments yet still do better than if they pushed borrowers into foreclosure. But that begs an obvious question: if loan modification is such a win-win solution, why does the government need to get involved at all?
To me, the larger questions are of philosophy and of policy. First, what moral obligation does the government have to bail out someone who took on more than they can handle? As an ARM holder, I knew what I was getting into - a short term rate decrease that would soon be followed by either a relocation on my part, or a refi into a prime rate mortgage. That was calculated by me. Other people have tapped their equity with constant refinancing, and the housing bubble threatens to ruin their livelihood. Why is the government responsible for the consequences of those choices?
Further, the risk of subprime mortgages are securitized. Like it or not, that's how the financial markets work. Anyone want to wager on how rigid the credit markets will be once the margin of risk is reduced by a government bail out?
Two words: unintended consequences.
Paulson and the Federal Government can try to be as compassionate as they want, but this scheme just isn't the way to show compassion. Real compassion would be to hold each borrower to the same standard of personal responsibility.
A 5-year-old Arkansas County boy killed a black bear Sunday weighing more than 400 pounds.
Tre Merritt, a descendant of Davy Crockett, was hunting with his grandfather Mike Merritt when a black bear happened upon their stand.
"His 10th great-grandfather was Davy Crockett," Mike Merritt said. "And Davy supposedly killed him a bear when he was three. And Tre is five and really killed a bear. I really doubt if Davy killed one when he was three."
An Indian judge has summoned two Hindu gods to help resolve a 20-year-old property dispute.
Sunil Kumar Singh has placed notices in newspapers in the coal mining town of Dhanbad, in the eastern state of Jharkhand, asking gods Ram and Hanuman to appear in his court next week to present their arguments.
"You failed to appear in court despite notices sent by a messenger and later through registered post. You are hereby directed to appear before the court personally," Judge Singh's notice stated.
The newspaper notices were published, in keeping with accepted Indian legal practice, after two summons dispatched to the plaintiff deities were returned because their addresses were "incomplete".
IMAGINE you are a woman at a party who spots a good-looking fellow standing alone in a corner. Before working up the courage to talk to him, you whip out your mobile phone. A few clicks reveal his age and profession, links to his latest blog posts and a plethora of other personal information. To many, this sounds like a nightmare. But to those building so-called “mobile” social networks, it is nirvana: linking virtual communities such as Facebook or MySpace with the real world. The idea is not new, but so far such services have not gained much traction. They have to be able to pinpoint people in order to work, but satellite positioning does not work indoors. More importantly, it is hard for such a service to gain critical mass: why join, if it does not already have many users?
A new generation of mobile social networks may have found ways to overcome these barriers. One is Aka-Aki, a start-up based in Berlin. Users of its service download a small program onto their mobile phone. The software then uses Bluetooth, the short-range radio technology built into many mobile phones, to check whether any friends or other members with similar interests are within 20 metres. If so, the program pulls down the person's picture and whatever information he or she is willing to reveal from the firm's website.
Somehow, the old method of simply introducing myself seems more appropriate.
As for myself, I generally only use LinkedIn, and I only use that for professional contacts. I've been waiting for a mobile version of LinkedIn, but I still haven't seen one.
I had a user this morning that spilt coffee onto one of our $3000 handheld devices. Ironic then that this little article was posted about saving wet devices. I suggested drying out the device (as does the article), but ultimately, this being an enterprise environment, I will probably issue a warranty claim.
Since I just upgraded to a new HD LCD TV, I'm not too pleased with the performance of my "upscaling" DVD player, which always seem to render disks in 576p instead of 780p or 1080i. I'm convinced that I want to upgrade to a Hi-Def DVD player, but do I want Blu-Ray or HD DVD? It would help if the standards would somehow converge. It's like choosing XM or Sirius (I chose Sirius for the NFL, but now I no longer get SEC sports broadcasts), or Dish vs. DirecTV (I chose Dish for... well, I think it was cheaper, but I can't remember now). The point is that I want one HD standard, and that has heretofore kept me out of the HD DVD market.
Of course, if the price keeps coming down (as Engadget points out this morning, Samsung has dropped one of their Blu-Ray models to $299), I might buy one just so that I can have HD-quality video output.
"So, if as Hollywood whines that the public doesn' t want Iraqi War movies, why is this selling so well, top of the rental lists, and ever so popular? At this rate it'll be the successful game companies, that gives the pubic what they want, who'll buy out the studios for their IP and name. Hollywood appears to have missed the impact of the technological shift as badly as MSM has. The public is getting the entertainment they crave, just not in the form that the old gatekeepers dispense."
Let's tie this sentiment back into the writers' strike. How about we use this occasion to simply get rid of the product that is out there and replace it with "what the public wants"? Anyone want to wager that a positive movie about the Iraq War would be a huge draw? I know I would pay to see it.
Interesting stuff about the Hollywood writers' strike here.
I've been lamenting the fact that 24 will likely be delayed for quite some time, but I'm starting to find a comparable amount of entertainment in reading the Hollywood Daily site, and the whining of the posters there.
I will admit that I don't know all of the facts because, well, I'm just not that interested in taking sides on this issue. But if it's true that the average writer makes $230,000 per year, then I'm not sure that I, or Joe Everyman is going to side with them on this issue.
Even funnier are the claims that this strike is "ruining lives"... of TV watchers! Please. I would argue that an absence of the tripe typically featured on TV these days is a Godsend for families. Now people have an excuse to actually SPEND TIME together instead of vegging out in front of the idiot box.
Here's hoping both sides hemorrhage enough to come back to reality, and that they figure out that maybe a strike in an industry that, while useful, is not necessary to the sustainence of mankind, just isn't that great of an idea. And hey... maybe the public will get out of this some quality programming in the aftermath. Eh, no, that would be asking too much.
UPDATE: Some of the funnier hyperbole...
"now we must eat the food SOVA gives us in the soup lines in West Los Angeles."
"I’m sure reality writers would love to stop working in literal sweatshops where the greedy producers won’t even pay for air conditioning while their slave labor writers toil all weekend with no overtime."
I'm watching the Heisman Trophy presentation now, not really caring who wins. But it strikes me that the ESPN talking heads are touting how noble it is that the best player is being selected and not the best player on the best team. Funny how their position in 1997 was totally different... or did they forget about Peyton Manning (being the best player) and Charles Woodson (being the best player on the best team)? And did they forget that they essentially won that award for Woodson based on their promotion ad nauseum of the "anti-candidate"?
If ever I have been convinced of the uselessness of this trophy, it's tonight.
My son, ever the volatile one, in a fit of anger over being put to bed, decided to destroy his blinds. His Levelor, not-cheap, not-a-good-time-to-be-broken-because-it's-Christmas blinds.
I'm not much for suffering fools, or children with poor impulse control, so I'm glad I was at work during this debacle. My wife and I decided that a call to Santa would be sufficient to convey our disappointment in him. Plus we decided that Santa should deduct a coveted toy from his upcoming bounty, probably the candy apple red remote control Mustang that looks like it kicks... er, you know.
Needless to say, he was very upset. But my wife explained to him that when he disobeys, bad things happen. She told him over and over and over that the blinds are not a toy, and not to play with the blinds, and he didn't obey, and they broke, so Santa had to hear about it.
Apparently, he threatened to get the phone and say, "Hi, Santa. Please bring me my red Mustang and some trucks," and not give my wife the phone to say not to bring them. Silly child. He thinks sequestering the phone will prevent his parents from contacting Santa.
A lesson learned? Maybe not. But definitely a lesson taught. One of these days, this sort of counseling will sink into the boy's head. That day cannot come soon enough.
So I'm trying to move a backup to an existing SQL Server from another database on the same instance today, and I keep getting an error saying that the files don't match, despite the fact that I've since deleted the original MDF and LDF files. Why this happens, I'm still unclear. I even deleted the original database container from Enterprise Manager.
It turns out that the path to the new MDF and LDF files was wrong. I changed it, recreated the original database, and I still inexplicably got an error saying that there was a user currently using the database that no longer exists. So... I went to Restore Database, and of course, in the dropdown, the database doesn't exist since I deleted it. Turns out that you need to type in the new database (well, not really new, but it is since I have deleted it. Twice.), select Force Restore Over Old Database (despite the fact that there no longer exists an Old Database), and click OK.
Voila. We have database with tables, views, stored procs, etc. intact.
This is all well, and good, but it's so non-intuitive. I think I will go back to T-SQL to do my restores. At least it makes more sense.
The plan has multiple parts, including a proposal to freeze interest rates on certain subprime loans for five years, fast track other borrowers toward refinanced loans and allow state and local governments to use more tax-exempt bond programs to fund refinancings.
Like I said earlier this week, I'd like to know what kind of specifics we're talking about here. Is the government going to subsidize the difference in the frozen and the original interest rate? Who qualifies for a freeze, and on what basis? Is there an income means test? An assets vs. liabilities means test? A debt-to-income ratio means test?
Furthermore, why are state and local authorities bailing out borrowers with bond funding? I have no problem with refinancing schemes, but I have a huge issue with a wholesale bail out, and that's what this sounds like to me.
If it is true that the clandestine nuclear-weapons program was suspended in Fall 2003, it is very good news. It means that the policies of America and its allies have been correct and successful. These policies include the accumulation and use of military might on Iran's eastern and western borders, yes, but also multi-lateral diplomacy and policies initiated and supported by Democrats and Europeans. There's credit enough to share, and plenty of room still to make partisan points on the specifics and on other issues, but instead there is this idiotic effort to spin a foreign-policy success as a Bush loss. It makes no sense on the merits. It makes sense only as hyper-partisanship.
I've been thinking this ever since the news came out. Isn't a win for America a win? Or does everything have to be spun as a way to make the president look bad? Furthermore, I fail to see how this makes Bush and Cheney look bad anyway. Wouldn't this mean that the pressure we've put on Iran and our presence in the Gulf region has led to something useful (like the suspension of a nuclear program)? Or is it just too bitter a pill to swallow to admit that maybe something good has happened in the Middle East, because you can't possibly allow something good to happen on President Bush's watch, don'tcha know?
All of this, of course, has an important caveat - IF the NIE is true in the first place. There is plenty of room for skepticism. But my premise above remains. If it is true, then it should be a good thing.
Most financial papers I read seem to be preoccupied with what they like to call a subprime mortgage mess. Now, I couldn't agree more that loaning huge amounts of money to less than creditworthy individuals was probably not a good idea. But the more I think about a possible government bailout, the more I question where personal responsibility has gone.
Why should the taxpayer subsidize poor decisions by both lending institutions and by individuals? Answer: they shouldn't. It is not the place of the .gov to intervene in a crisis that really isn't yet a crisis.
What should happen is that lenders should solicit those who have been faithful with their payments for the original terms of the loan, and then offer them a comparable fixed rate, with some sort of incremental increase tied to the prime, along with maybe a nominal processing fee. I'm unclear as to how the lender can be compelled to do so, other than a common sense approach ("Gee, maybe if we renegotiate this borrower's rate, the home won't go into foreclosure, and we won't lose money on this deal.") Heck, maybe an enterprising lender can open a whole new business catering to people who want to transition from an ARM to a fixed rate that is comparable to what they're already paying. It would seem to be good business to loan to those who have already proven their worth, wouldn't it?
Now, if a borrower can't make the $800 payment on a 5.35% 5 year ARM that is about to go up to 7.35%, maybe foreclosure is the best option. But I really think some semblance of reason should prevail for those who are keeping up with their obligations.
Just my $0.02.
MORE: From today's WSJ Afternoon Report - "Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson offered some clues today in a speech to the Office of Thrift Supervision's housing forum. "First, we are increasing efforts to reach able homeowners who are struggling with their mortgages. Second, we are working to increase the availability of affordable mortgage solutions for these borrowers. Third, we are leading the industry to develop a systematic means of efficiently moving able homeowners into sustainable mortgages," Mr. Paulson said, outlining the goals of the plan. He also broke down four categories of subprime borrowers. The first and second groups are, respectively, those who can afford the adjusted rate and those who can't afford their lower starter rates. These borrowers shouldn't expect to be included in the plan, Mr. Paulson said. The third group represents homeowners who might be able to refinance their mortgages, while the fourth are borrowers "with steady incomes and relatively clean payment histories who could afford the lower introductory mortgage rate but cannot afford the higher adjusted rate." The final group is the focus of the government-backed plan.
That all sounds well and good on the surface, but here's the rub. Who determines who falls into what group? What criteria is going to be used? How can someone prove that they belong in the group that is going to be the focus of the government-backed plan? Platitudes are worth nothing. I would like to see the details on this proposal.
I will be interested to see how difficult Google makes it for the town of Manalapan. After all, they haven't been too apprehensive about revealing a blogger's identity in the past, even without a court order.
I just received an email from our church secretary for this week's prayer requests. In it, she mentions a car accident in Mississippi in which the great-grandson of one of our church members died. He was only nine years old.
Not long ago, our church secretary lost her granddaughter.
In the last two years, not many in our congregation have not been touched with the loss of someone close, including me, as anyone who has read this blog knows.
As I read the email this afternoon, I cried. Death has become so normal, so typical, yet the news that a little boy had died... it touched me. I believe I am much more keenly aware of death now. Being responsible for the lives of three little boys, and thinking every day about the loss of my wonderful grandmother has humbled me, and has made me much more sympathetic for losses such as these.
I cannot begin to imagine losing any of my boys. I hope I never have to go through that pain. God be with anyone who has to deal with such tragedy.
